Partly Cloudy, 64°
Freshman David Filben was released from Brown University health services on January 27 after an episode in the Sharpe Refectory cost him his sight in his left eye for the first three days of the semester.
According to Filben, he was discussing the upcoming shopping period after lunch with Jewel Richards '10 when the incident took place.
"We were chatting, having a good time. The next thing I knew the corner of my eye was burning and everything was blurry," said Filben.
A close friend of Filben's, who was at the cereal station when the incident happened, recalls, "I had just gotten my Lucky Charms when suddenly I heard someone screaming. I didn't know David before I came here so I'd never heard him scream, but as soon as I heard it I knew something really bad had happened."
Sharpe Refectory employees along with Filben's friends rushed him to health services, only one block away, where the nurse immediately began flushing the eye. After a half-hour of failed attempts to locate the source of the pain they chose simply to patch it up, a decision for which the doctor on call later apologized.
Dr. Lloyd Stevens commented, "The nurse should have tried alternatives. There was clearly an irritant and patching is rarely the solution."
Two days later, Filben claims he felt something dislodge and called for the nurse. She removed the patch and found a chunk of a Golden Delicious apple in the pupil region. After getting rid of the specimen she gave him medicated eye drops. He was dismissed the following morning.
Richards has refused to comment, but, according to an anonymous source, she and Filben are not on speaking terms.
